Articles written by Karen Bledsoe

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About me - Karen Bledsoe

Dr. Karen E. Bledsoe teaches biology at Western Oregon University, where she specializes in science education for adult learners. A lifetime gardener, she naturally gravitated toward botany in college, and earned a master's degree in botany from Oregon State

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Home & Garden > Weeds & Pests Should you use pesticides to control garden weeds?: 1 of 28
Garden centers carry dozens of herbicides which can be used with deadly efficiency to kill weeds, roots and all. They're easy to use, and while some are costly, they spare the gardener a great deal of labor.The question is, should they be used? Do they have a place in the average suburban garden? The answer isn't as simple as... More..
Health & Fitness > First Aid How to prepare first aid kits for home: 1 of 21
Every home should have a first aid kit, and every person in that home should know exactly where it is kept. It's not enough to have first aid supplies, if they're always "somewhere," in one cupboard or another, never right where you need them when you need them. Keep your first aid supplies together in one box, and they will ... More..
Travel > Transportation (Other) Planes, trains & automobiles: Transport nightmares: 1 of 20
With only five days of our vacation time overlapping, we decided that if we were going to see my husband's mother in Indiana, we'd clearly have to fly instead of doing a road trip from Oregon as we'd done in the past. Booking airline tickets was a snap over the internet, and we soon had our trip with a layover in Houston all ... More..
Home & Garden > Landscaping Reasons to put fencing up around your home: 1 of 20
The kids next door keep leaving toys in your back yard. Your other neighbor's landscapers, unclear about property lines, butchered your prize weeping cherry and trampled your dahlias. The dog from across the way trots out of his yard to use yours as a potty box, and your own cats risk life and limb every time they chase the s... More..
Sciences > Anatomy Facts about the human brain: 1 of 19
Imagine you're living in Maine and want to drive to a relative's house in Florida, but your only map is the map of the United States that used to fit in your binder in Junior High. You can see where Florida is in relation to Maine, and may see where a few major cities and highways are, but once you get to Florida, you can onl... More..
Arts & Humanities > Writing Tips Tips for spotting publishing scams: 1 of 18
It's those six words authors hunger for the most - "We want to publish your book!" - that puts money into the pockets of publishing scammers. You can find their victims at local fairs, writing workshops, anyplace where there's a place for authors to display their books. Some of the books you find there are lovely, but others ... More..
Home & Garden > Gardening (Other) How to attract wildlife in your garden: 1 of 17

Whether for their own pleasure or for the benefit of the planet, many people are getting into gardening for wildlife. Setting up an entire wildlife refuge on your property might sound like a job best left to professionals, but an inspection of your yard may reveal that only a few simple changes are needed to make your yard mo... More..
Arts & Humanities > Origins & Firsts in History History of the catapult: 1 of 14
With a stack of poles, several lengths of rope, and a rough sketch of a plan, the young men set to work. They lashed the poles together to form the base tripod, then constructed the swing arm and the counterweight. Within an hour they'd constructed a trebuchet, a siege weapon capable of launching its payload several dozens of... More..
Arts & Humanities > Writing Tips Commonly misused words: 1 of 14
Writers today must be their own editors. Decades ago, an editor's job was to clean up a writer's work, but in today's fast-paced publishing world with its bottom-line mentality, an editor's job has a lot more to do with acquiring and marketing manuscripts than actually editing them. That's why it's become the writer's respons... More..
Pets & Animals > Cat Care & Health How to get your cat to take his medication: 1 of 13
Every day in our household it's a new and exciting episode of, "Get the pill into the cat without getting mauled!" Licorice, our two-year-old neutered kitty boy, is a big bundle of love outside, but a mean son-of-a-gun inside, which is one reason he gets a daily pill for his overly-aggressive territorial tendencies. He's also... More..